Friday Free For All #2

Hello and welcome to Free Friday.

Due to a quick trip to Boston and back this week, there was only one newsletter. On Monday, I wrote about the most exciting players on the worst teams in the league. On the list of worst teams, I included the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies—teams that were, on Monday, in last place in their division and struggling to stay afloat.

My how things can change quickly.

Earlier this week, the Nationals took two of three from Giants, in San Francisco. With a 6-4 record over their last 10 games, the Nats are only 1.5 games behind the Mets for fourth place in the National League East. Sure, that’s more of an indictment of the Mets than praise of the Nats (more on that below), but after a dreadful start to the season, the Nats are playing better. And my most exciting player pick—starter MacKenzie Gore—didn’t even pitch against the Giants.

The Rockies, too, are surging, with an 8-2 record over their last 10 games. That includes a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers and two out of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the top two teams in the NL Central. Now the Rockies and Giants both have 16 wins, while the Rockies have two more losses.

Makes me wonder who I would say is the most exciting player on the Giants right now.

No doubt, it’s Casey Schmitt. Who? Yes, Casey Schmitt, who played his first major league game on Tuesday night at Oracle Park in San Francisco. The Giants faced the Nationals. In his second at-bat, Schmitt got his first major-league hit. A booming home run into the left centerfield bleachers. Duane Kuiper’s call is a masterpiece. Schmitt also laced a single for a two hit debut game.

In his second major-league game on Wednesday afternoon, Schmitt went 2-for-4 with a double and a single.

In his third major-league game on Thursday night in Phoenix, Schmitt went 4-for-4 with a home run, a double and two singles.

Yes, your addition is correct. Schmitt has 8 hits in his first 3 games in the majors.

Someone please make me a T-shirt that says “Schmitt Show” in black with orange lettering.

Monthly and yearly subscriptions are still available at 20% off the regular rate. Click here for the discount.

The Mets are in The Bad Place

The Mets entered the season with the highest total payroll for players on the 26-man roster ($377 million) and even higher expectations. Two players—Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander—are making $43 million each this season. That $86 million for two starters is more than the entire 26-man payroll of the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, and Oakland A’s.

Money doesn’t buy happiness or wins. Heading into a weekend series against the Nationals in Washington, D.C., the Mets are 18-20, which puts them 7.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. The season is young and there is plenty of time for the Mets to turn it around, but there are big questions now whether this roster can pull it off.

Even with Scherzer and Verlander—or perhaps because of Scherzer—the Mets’ starting pitchers have been the worst in the National League, as measured by FanGraphs WAR. Indeed, the Mets’ starters are the only rotation in the NL with a negative fWAR (-0.4).

Let’s break it down. Mets’ starters are really struggling, especially right out of the gate. New York is being outscored 34-9 in the first inning. Overall the rotation has walked more than 11% of all batters faced. No other team in the NL has a double-digit walk rate. Their WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) sits at 1.50, third worst in the NL. And they’re giving up 1.79 home runs per 9 innings; only the Rockies’ rotation is worse at 1.80.

Verlander’s only made two starts so far, as he started the season on the injured list with a shoulder injury. Scherzer’s made only five starts so far. He playing time was cut short by the 10-game suspension for using sticky stuff and neck stiffness. When he has pitched, he’s been pretty awful. And yet Scherzer’s 5.56 ERA isn’t close to being the worst in the rotation, thanks to David Peterson and Carlos Carrasco.

The bullpen is . . . fine. Middle of the road. David Robertson has stepped in nicely for the injured Edwin Diaz and recorded seven saves. Adam Ottavino has four. The problem for the Mets is middle relief, which is getting taxed by the poor performance of the starters.

The offense is underwhelming. Pete Alonso’s hit 13 home runs, Francisco Lindor’s hit 6 and no one else on the team’s hit more than 3. That likely explains why the team slugging percentage is only .389, fifth lowest in the NL. Tomas Nido, Tommy Pham, Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, and Starling Marte are all struggling at the plate, which makes it easy for opposing pitchers to run through the bottom of the Mets’ lineup with little damage done.

The Mets need to get better in every facet of the game. It will be interesting to watch what happens.

American League East Dominance

With a three-game sweep of the Oakland A’s this week followed by a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night, the New York Yankees are now 21-18 heading into Friday’s action. Yet the Yankees remain in last place in the AL East because every team in the division has a better winning record.

If the season ends with every team in the AL East above .500, it would make MLB history.

Since MLB moved to three divisions in each league in 1994, only one division has ended the season with every team at or above a .500 winning percentage: the National League East in 2005.

We saw that same scenario in the two-division era in 1991, when every team in the AL West ended the season at or above .500.

But there’s never been been a season where every team in a division finished above .500. Not in the two-division era from 1969 to 1993. And not in the three-division era from 1994 to the present.

The more balanced schedule this season may be the biggest reason why we may see history made in the AL East. That’s because each team plays its in-division rivals in only four series instead of six, and plays every other team in the league in at least one series. That gives the good teams in the AL East more of an opportunity to feast on bad teams in other divisions around the league.

As the guys from Cespedes Family BBQ tweeted earlier this week, the AL East is so much better than the AL Central that on Tuesday the two divisions lined up like this:

I live for these kinds of anomalies, so I’m rooting hard for an all-winning record AL East. Also, other than Yankees fans, who doesn’t want to see the Yankees end with a winning record and still miss the postseason?

Here come the Tigers

As good as the AL East is, the AL Central is bad. Really bad. That’s how the Detroit Tigers have slipped into second place with a 17-19 record. Detroit’s also been playing pretty good ball in May. The Tigers started the month by sweeping a three-game series from the Mets, and then took two out of three from the Cardinals and the Guardians. Sure, all of those teams are under .500, but kudos to the Tigers for getting the job against weak competition.

Bunting the winning run home

The play didn’t involve Vinnie Pasquatino (my pick on Monday for most exciting Royals player) but it was a beauty. With the Royals and White Sox tied at 3 in the bottom of the 9th, the Royals had runners on first and third with one out. Freddy Fermin entered the batters box, squared to bunt on the first pitch, and laid down a bunt that so flummoxed the White Sox catcher and pitcher that neither was able to grab the ball and tag the runner streaking in from third.

Walk-off home runs are cool. Walk-off bunts are cooler.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy some baseball this weekend.